What are some existing successful responses to ensure resilience and adapt to changes, particularly from economic development point of view?

Introduction: the Philippines

(a) The Philippines is the 12th biggest country in the world in terms of population size, 101 million people, July 2015.

(b) Archipelago, 7,100+ islands and islets.
Lots of active and inactive volcanoes. And earthquakes too, average of around 3 EQs a day, though mostly too mild to be felt only by seismographs, or they happen under the sea.

(c) Capital is Metro Manila, composed of 17 cities, with estimated population of almost 13 million. During weekdays, this bloats to around 16 million as students and workers from neighboring provinces and cities flock to the big city.

How does CC manifest itself affecting people and economies and happiness?

After experiencing some huge storms and very wet conditions in recent years due to the last La Nina, we currently experience a big El Nino that affects the Philippines and other countries in the tropics. So we expect drought conditions in the dry months of December-May. But it is not the “Godzilla” of El Nino as reported in many papers, rather comparable to the other big El Nino in 1997-98.

In a global survey on the Question,

“Which of these issues is the most important for [COUNTRY] today? (HEALTH CARE/ EDUCATION/CRIME/ THE ENVIRONMENT/ IMMIGRATION/ THE ECONOMY/ TERRORISM/ POVERTY/ NONE OFTHESE/ CAN’T CHOOSE)”

Percent selecting and rank of environment (2010).

Source: TOM W. SMITH, NORC/University of Chicago. “Global Environmental Change across Countries and Time, 1993-2010”, Presented at the 2013 Research Session of the ISSP Meeting, Santiago, Chile, April 28 to May 1, 2013. Published by the Social Weather Station (SWS), Manila.

So public awareness of climate change is low compared to “gut issues” like healthcare, economy.

What does current evidence and projections say about the future?

Current evidence and projections say that we are entering the global cooling phase, after the global warming phase of the last century. CC is natural (nature-made, not man-made), it is cyclical (warming-cooling-warming-cooling).

What are some existing successful responses to ensure resilience and adapt to changes?

Focus on energy, the Philippines is putting up more coal power plants as we have the 2nd highest electricity prices in Asia next to Japan, because of insufficient power supply and various taxes and charges imposed on electricity. These new coal plants will help expand electricity supply and help reduce electricity prices.

Many big Asian economies rely heavily on coal and natural gas for their electricity needs. In particular, these countries have more than 90% of their total electricity coming from fossil fuel sources: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Bangladesh.

Electricity production and sources in selected Asian economies, 2012

Electr. Prodn.

(Bill. kWh)

Sources of electricity (% of total)

Fossil fuel % (1+2+3)

Coal (1)

Nat. gas (2)

Oil (3)

Hydro (4)

Others (5)

Indonesia

195.9

48.7

23.2

16.7

6.5

4.9

88.6

Thailand

166.6

20.0

70.3

1.5

5.3

3.0

91.8

Malaysia

134.4

41.5

46.6

4.5

6.7

0.7

92.6

Philippines

72.9

38.8

26.9

5.8

14.1

14.4

71.5

Singapore

46.9

—

84.3

13.0

—

3.0

97.3

China

4,994.1

75.8

1.7

0.1

17.5

4.9

77.6

Japan

1,034.3

29.3

38.4

17.5

8.1

6.7

85.2

S. Korea

534.6

44.8

20.9

4.0

1.4

28.9

69.7

Taiwan

250.3

49.9

25.4

3.1

3.4

18.2

78.4

Hong Kong

38.8

70.3

27.3

2.1

—

0.2

99.7

India

1,127.6

71.1

8.3

2.0

11.2

7.4

81.4

Pakistan

96.1

0.1

28.2

35.9

31.1

4.7

64.2

Kazakhstan

91.2

76.1

14.7

0.8

8.4

—

91.6

Bangladesh

49.0

1.8

85.1

11.5

1.6

—

98.4

Bhutan

6.8

—

—

—

—

—

—

Source: International Energy Agency; ADB, Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2015.